The 40 Films I Loved Most in 2016 - #20-11

20. Couple In A Hole
Director: Tom Geens, UK release date: 8 April

Eccentric drama about the terrible impact of grief on a husband and wife living like savages in a French forest. Paul Higgins (The Thick Of It) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) are both superb as the eponymous couple who have survived a tragedy but failed to cope with its emotional fallout. Geens' film falls away a little towards the end but otherwise this is a near-perfect blend of pitch-black humour and melancholy.

19. The Jungle Book
Director: Jon Favreau, UK release date: 15 April

Rich and rewarding adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's original stories that also pays fulsome homage to the beloved 1960s animation (The Bare Necessities, Trust In Me and I Wan'na Be Like You all get an airing). You'd be hard pressed to find more immersive CG anywhere and the voice cast is uniformly terrific, boasting as it does the likes of Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.

18. Embrace Of The Serpent

Directors: Ciro Guerra, UK release date: 10 June

The story of an Amazonian shaman and his relationship (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) with two European scientists - 40 years apart - as they descend into the great river's heart of darkness, searching for a mythical plant with great healing properties. Big themes, sumptuous cinematography and moments both disturbing and thrilling make for an intoxicating brew. 

17. Mustang

Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven, UK release date: 13 May

Oscar-nominated drama chronicling the lives of five orphaned Turkish sisters, imprisoned then forced into marriage by their conservative guardians. Its subject matter is dark but the film never slips into clumsy melodrama. Instead, it is hopeful, defiant and surprisingly filled with humour, as director Ergüven explores the clash between modern and traditional Turkish culture.

16. Author: The JT LeRoy Story
Director: Jeff Feuerzeig, UK release date: 29 July

The jaw-droppingly odd tale of Laura Albert, the 30-something US author who created and enjoyed enormous literary success as JT LeRoy, a fictional male alter-ego played in public by her sister-in-law. Beloved by celebrities and feted by the fashion world, LeRoy appeared to have the world at his/her feet... until the deception was discovered. Perhaps told far too much from Albert's perspective, Feuerzeig's documentary is nevertheless fascinating.

15. The Measure Of A Man

Director: Stéphane Brizé, UK release date: 3 June

A French companion piece to I, Daniel Blake (see #13), Brizé's film uses France's economic downturn to explore the effects of austerity on the male psyche; specifically how it can emasculate, humiliate and ultimately dehumanise even the most resolute. Veteran French actor Vincent Lindon has never been better as a former factory worker struggling to keep his family's head above water after two years of unemployment.

14. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Directors: Akiva Schaffe and Jorma Taccone, UK release date: 26 August
The Lonely Island's no-holds-barred mockumentary gives the Bieber generation the same kind of kick up the backside This Is Spinal Tap administered to the rock community 30 years ago. Like Tap, Andy Samberg (starring here as spoiled pop/rap megastar Conner4Real) and his compatriots understand that musical parodies only work if the songs themselves are actually good. And the songs here definitely are - they're also utterly hilarious.

13. I, Daniel Blake
Director: Ken Loach, UK release date: 21 October
The veteran socialist director's Palme d'Or winner dissects the UK government's war on the vulnerable in an impassioned and unapologetic polemic. After suffering a heart attack, Dave Johns (as Blake) feels the full force of state bureaucracy as he attempts to claim enough money to live on while being bullied and frustrated by a parade of jobsworths. The scene set in a food bank, in which a penniless young mum (the excellent Hayley Squires) eats cold baked beans straight from the tin, made me sob like an infant.

12. Spotlight

Director: Tom McCarthy, UK release date: 29 January

The Best Picture Oscar winner focuses on the Boston Globe's 2001 investigation into a local cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. Its absence of directorial flashiness or melodrama allows an excellent ensemble cast (including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton), sharp writing and methodical plotting to shine. Authenticity and decency are unfashionable qualities but McCarthy's film exudes both.

11. Arrival
Director: Denis Villeneuve, UK release date: 10 November
Amy Adams is an eminent linguist with a tragic secret, recruited by the US government to communicate with a fleet of alien ships, newly parked up at various locations across the globe. As someone who knows his sci-fi, the film's big twist didn't kick me in the shins quite as hard as it did some, but was still exquisitely delivered. Villeneuve's eerie, elegiac movie absolutely nails the wonder and madness of first contact.

**Next up: the top 10**

Imperium, Love & Friendship, and The Nice Guys: Your Week In Film (September 26-October 2)

Whiteout: Daniel Radcliffe on the march in Imperium

I've taken the odd potshot at Daniel Radcliffe's acting in this column but, credit where it's due, he is very good in Imperium (cinemas and VOD) WWW. The former Harry Potter plays Nate Foster, a nerdy FBI agent who goes undercover in a bid to prevent a terrorist plot hatched by American neo-Nazis. Unusually for this type of film, Foster doesn't inveigle himself into the sieg-heilers' inner circle by being a badass prepared to break a few heads but by using his superior intellect and extensive research to say the right things at the right time. Brute force might hurt white supremacists, Imperium seems to suggest, but it takes guile and genuine smarts to properly take them down.

Yes, there are several elements in Daniel Ragussis's film we've seen before - the close shaves where Foster's identity is almost compromised, the bad guy with whom our protagonist strikes up an unlikely bond - but the repetition of such tropes is easily forgivable. Apart from a couple of bonehead caricatures, it refuses to present the Nazis as cartoon monsters. These deeply flawed and thoroughly hateful people don't just have a world view but one they have thought about, read about and can properly articulate. What's more, they could be the woman next door (the wife of Sam Trammell's head honcho bakes cakes decorated with swastika icing), the bloke behind the bar in your local or even your new workmate - shaved head or not, the hatred burns just as intensely. 

Toni Collette as Foster's ruthless FBI handler is reliably superb if somewhat under-utilised, while Radcliffe himself gives easily his most nuanced performance to date. Foster is by turns scared, frustrated and even conflicted and Radcliffe sells all of that most convincingly. It all adds up to an intelligent, impressively researched and realised crime thriller that is one part entertainment, another part wake-up call.

Normally, I'm no fan of costume dramas either but thoroughly enjoyed Whit Stillman's deliciously spiky Love & Friendship (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) WWW, an adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, Lady Susan. Kate Beckinsale is Lady Susan Vernon, a high-maintenance Machiavelli who, following the death of her husband, is reduced to 'visiting' (moving in with) any friend or relative foolhardy enough to put up with her constant schemes, indiscretions and betrayals. Prepared to ride roughshod over anyone who gets in her way, she pursues her goal of netting wealthy husbands for herself and sappy daughter Frederica. In truth, the woman is utterly dreadful but Beckinsale's arch performance and Whitman's hilarious writing conspire to make Lady Susan someone you end up rather liking (although you'd trust her about as far as you could throw her). Her scenes with co-conspirator Chloë Sevigny are a delight but it's Tom Bennett who comes closest to stealing the entire film as Sir James Martin, perhaps the finest screen idiot since Tim McInnerny first pulled on a doublet and hose to become Lord Percy Percy in Blackadder.

Unfriended: Lady Susan is trouble with a capital T

Not quite in the same league laughs-wise is The Nice Guys (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) WW. Ryan Gosling (a boozy private eye) and Russell Crowe (an unreconstructed thug) are terrific in Shane Black's retro buddy comedy set in 1970s Los Angeles, but are let down by a half-baked plot that isn't so much confusing as downright uninteresting. Kim Basinger – '80s stalwart of 9½ Weeks and Batman – is criminally underused.

Amazon Prime Video is making three of the year's most eye-catching films available to watch from Friday (Sept 30), including Spotlight WWW½. Tom McCarthy's Best Picture Oscar winner focuses on the Boston Globe newspaper's 2001 investigation into the local cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The film's absence of directorial flashiness or melodrama allows an excellent ensemble cast (including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton), sharp writing and methodical plotting to shine. Amazon also has Trumbo WWW, a thoroughly entertaining biopic of 1950s Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Roman Holiday, Spartacus), who was blacklisted and jailed for being a communist. Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston is on fine scenery-chewing form as the titular character. Last but not least from Amazon is Youth WWW. Paolo Sorrentino's follow up to The Great Beauty stars Michael Caine as a retired composer waiting for the end at an exclusive Swiss spa. A tragicomic meditation on old age, grief and regret, Youth also contains a generous helping of eccentricity (like the moment Paloma Faith turns up, playing a singer called... Paloma Faith).

Sorrentino's oddness is small potatoes when set against Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York (Tuesday, 00:55, Film4) WWW. The much-missed Philip Seymour Hoffman is lugubrious threatre director Caden Cotard, a man in the throes of a permanent midlife crisis. Obsessed with death and illness - but still somehow able to form relationships with a string of absurdly attractive women (Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton) - he buys a vast warehouse and commences work on a hugely ambitious new play. As his creation grows bigger and bigger - spreading out into other warehouses, its own self-contained world - fiction and reality merge. Suddenly, there isn't just one Caden but several, including a version played by actress Deirdre O'Connell. It's surreal, funny, maddening and occasionally quite brilliant.

Rather more conventional, Steven Spielberg's Cold War thriller Bridge Of Spies (from Friday, 14:20 and 20:00, Sky Cinema Premiere/NOW TV) WW½ is a perfectly likeable advertisement for liberal decency, with Tom Hanks all effortless charm and unflappable resolve. Hanks plays James B Donovan, an insurance lawyer pressed into defending a captured Russian spy (Oscar winner Mark Rylance) and then travelling to communist Berlin in a bid to exchange the man for a downed airman and incarcerated student. Based on a true story, it's good solid fare but, in truth, lacks a sense of real jeopardy and both Spielberg and Hanks have done much better work.

Ratings

WWWW - Wonderful

WWW - Worthwhile

WW - Watchable

W - Woeful

My 20 favourite films of the year so far

Strange brew: The Witch is my film of the year... so far

To qualify for this list, films had to have had a UK cinema release between January 1 and June 30 2016. That some of these films were out in the States (or elsewhere) last year is irrelevant; it's only when they were released here - in the United Kingdom - that matters to me. I haven't included any movies that went straight to VOD, DVD etc - they will probably get their own 'best of' list at the end of the year. 

1. The Witch

Director: Robert Eggers UK release date: March 11

Eggers' debut feature is a masterful exercise in slow-burn horror which sees a 17th century Puritan family battling demons within and without. Impressively researched, unsettling and filled to the brim with palpable dread, The Witch is about as far removed from formulaic multiplex 'jump scares' as it is possible to get.

2. Victoria

Director: Sebastian Schipper UK release date: April 1

German crime thriller about a naive young Madrid girl led into criminality by a group of men on the mean streets of Berlin. An incredibly impressive technical achievement (the film was shot in one long take - no tricks, no shortcuts), that Laia Costa - the Victoria of the title - imbues with real heart and soul.

3. Son Of Saul
Director: László Nemes UK release date: April 29
We've seen the hell of the WWII death camps on film before but never quite like this. Set in Auschwitz in 1944, it tells the story of a Jewish Sonderkommando (a prisoner forced to help the Nazis dispose of dead bodies) trying to arrange a proper burial for a boy he believes to be his son. Profoundly moving and utterly heartbreaking.

4. Couple In A Hole

Director: Tom Geens UK release date: April 8

Harrowing drama about the terrible impact of grief on a husband and wife living like savages in a French forest. Paul Higgins (The Thick Of It) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) are both superb in a tale that perfectly blends pitch-black humour and gut-wrenching emotion. 

5. Spotlight

Director: Tom McCarthy UK release date: January 29

The Best Picture Oscar winner focuses on the Boston Globe's 2001 investigation into a local cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. Its absence of directorial flashiness or melodrama allows an excellent ensemble cast (including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton), sharp writing and methodical plotting to shine.

6. Embrace Of The Serpent
Directors: Ciro Guerra UK release date: June 10

The story of an Amazonian shaman and his relationship (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) with two European scientists - 40 years apart - as they descend into the great river's heart of darkness, searching for a mythical plant with great healing properties. Big themes, sumptuous cinematography and moments both disturbing and thrilling make for an intoxicating brew. 

7. Hail, Caesar!
Directors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen UK release date: March 4
Slight but joyous love letter to Hollywood past with wit and charm to burn. Full of great performances (George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich) and clever pastiches of old movies, especially Channing Tatum's No Dames, an hilariously homoerotic song and dance number featuring a bar full of sailors.
8. Mustang
Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven UK release date: May 13

Oscar-nominated drama chronicling the lives of five orphaned Turkish sisters, imprisoned then forced into marriage by their conservative guardians. Its subject matter is dark but the film never slips into clumsy melodrama. Instead, it is hopeful and defiant.

9. Welcome To Me
Director: Shira Piven UK release date: March 25
Kristen Wiig is a revelation as a bipolar woman who scoops $86million in the lottery and uses the cash to buy her own (bizarre) talk show. It's surreal, sad, funny and human but most importantly refuses to patronise or infantilise its protagonist.

10. Remainder
Director: Omer Fast UK release date: June 24

Tricksy but inventive memory-loss drama in which Tom Sturridge forgets vast swathes of his past when he is hit on the head by an object falling from a London office block. Constantly has you on the back foot as its plot shifts from downbeat melodrama to surreal crime caper.

11. The Big Short

Director: Adam McKay UK release date: January 22

A breathlessly entertaining dissection of 2008's global financial meltdown, seen through the eyes of the men who knew it was coming and got filthy rich as a result. Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling are all great and McKay must be applauded for the inventive, fun ways in which he explains some pretty tricky concepts. Smug? A bit. Smart? Most definitely.

12. Joy

Director: David O Russell UK release date: January 1

This unconventional biopic of Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano has some interesting things to say about the entrepreneurial spirit and American capitalism - i.e. battling to get rich can harm your relationships, strip you of your innocence and play havoc with your dress sense. Jennifer Lawrence, in the title role, is as ridiculously charming as ever. 
13. Eye In The Sky

Director: Gavin Hood UK release date: April 15

Incredibly tense examination of modern drone warfare, which is also surprisingly complex and refreshingly even-handed. Boasts terrific performances from Helen Mirren and the late Alan Rickman, in his final screen role.

14. The Jungle Book
Director: Jon Favreau UK release date: April 15
Rich and rewarding adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's original stories that also pays fulsome homage to the beloved 1960s animation (The Bare Necessities, Trust In Me and I Wan'na Be Like You all get an airing). You'd be hard pressed to find more immersive CG anywhere and the voice cast is uniformly terrific (Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson).

15. Welcome To Leith
Directors: Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker UK release date: February 12

Chilling documentary about a group of neo-Nazis - led by notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb - attempting to take over a tiny North Dakotan town. The locals are initially caught on the back foot, but it isn't long before they organise a fightback in hopes of sending Cobb and his toy-town Gestapo packing. 

16. Zootropolis
Directors: Byron Howard and Rich Moore UK release date: March 25
A rabbit cop teams up with a criminal fox to unearth a massive conspiracy in Disney's utterly charming anthropomorphic adventure. Under the ubiquitous 'You can be anything you want to be' life lessons, there are laughs aplenty, seriously impressive world building and some surprisingly adult themes. Beautifully written and animated, this is a joy from start to finish.
17. Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures
Directors: Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato UK release date: April 22
Fascinating documentary chronicling the life and controversial career of US photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS in 1989. As well as presenting an honest portrait of his many relationships (including with Patti Smith), it expertly charts the increasing sophistication of his work. There was an awful lot more to the man than a dozen or so notorious S&M shots.

18. Youth
Director: Paolo Sorrentino UK release date: January 29

Sorrentino's follow up to the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty is an eccentric, tragicomic meditation on old age, grief and regret. Michael Caine is reliably superb as the retired composer waiting for the end at an exclusive Swiss spa, while Harvey Keitel turns in his best performance for years as a movie director chasing past glories.

19. Everybody Wants Some!!
Director: Richard Linklater UK release date: May 13
'Spiritual sequel' to the director's superior Dazed And Confused, this time focusing on the members of a 1980 Texas college baseball team. Beer is downed, weed is smoked, trash is talked, and occasionally these likeable jocks get around to hitting a ball or two. Good clean fun bathed in enough rose-tinted nostalgia to float a battleship.
20. Goodnight Mommy
Directors: Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz UK release date: March 4

Unsettling Austrian horror about twin boys who become convinced their mother is no longer who she says she is. Directing duo Fiala and Franz build the levels of tension, paranoia and nastiness very nicely but I'm not sure the finale's big twist is entirely necessary.

Victoria, Spotlight and Money Monster: Your Week In Film (May 23-29)

George Clooney and Jack O'Connell star in Money Monster

TV, Radio, DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and cinema picks for the next seven days...

Monday 23rd: German crime thriller Victoria (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) sees a naive young Madrid girl (Laia Costa) led into criminality on the mean streets of Berlin by a group of local lads she befriends at a club. Most critics have focused on the fact it was shot in one long take (no cheats or shortcuts) but, as well as being an incredibly impressive technical achievement, Sebastian Schipper's film has genuine heart and soul. 'Understated' is probably the best way to describe Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight (DVD, BR and VOD), a low-key film with no directorial flashiness, action set-pieces or melodrama. The movie's plot – journalists investigating the cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Boston – is front and centre at all times and even the excellent ensemble cast in Tom McCarthy's movie (including Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams) are granted little external life outside of their quest to chase down witnesses and pour over information sources. It's a fascinating piece of work and one happy to take its time in showing the Boston Globe writers methodically and forensically building their jigsaw of evidence. Elsewhere, there's The Big Short (DVD, BR and VOD), Adam McKay's breathlessly entertaining dissection of 2008's global financial meltdown, Netflix has jaw-dropping 'war on drugs' documentary Cartel Land, and MUBI dips a rare toe into the Hollywood mainstream with Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky.

German thriller Victoria is a one-take sensation

Tuesday 24th: The movie adaptation of graphic novel 30 Days Of Night (23:20, ITV4) is memorable mainly for Danny Huston's vampire leader, Marlow. He's genuinely bloody scary as his gang of blood suckers lay waste to a remote Alaskan town that remains dark for one month every year. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George star. On the subject of comic-book adaptations, there's also Barbarella (11:50, Sky Select) in which Jane Fonda plays the highly-sexed 41st-century heroine on a quest to stop the evil Durand-Durand. Glad I resisted the temptation to add the words 'from ever making another album' to the end of that sentence.

30 Days Of Night: More bite than most vampire films

Wednesday 25th: Like The Big Short (mentioned above), 99 Homes (Amazon Prime Video) tackles the global financial meltdown of 2008, specifically America's subprime mortgage crisis, which saw many thousands of people lose their homes. When Floridian construction worker Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) has his family home repossessed, he ends up working for Rick Carver (Michael Shannon), the greedy and ruthless real estate broker responsible for taking his house in the first place. Nash makes serious money but in so doing loses his soul and breaks the law. Ramin Bahrani's film is ultimately a bit more optimistic than Adam McKay's but still packs an emotional punch.

99 Homes: Spider-Man battles General Zod... sort of

Thursday 26th: The Last Man On The Moon (Netflix UK) is a documentary chronicling the extraordinary life of Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan. It focuses not just on Cernan's space-faring adventures but also looks at what happens to people like him once they return to normal life. As his wife says: "If you think going to the moon is hard, try staying at home." On The Film Programme (16:00, BBC Radio 4) director Whit Stillman talks to Francine Stock about his new film Love And Friendship, an adaptation of Jane Austen's posthumously-published novella Lady Susan, which hits cinemas on Friday. Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny star.

Beckinsale and Sevigny star in Love And Friendship

Friday 27th: Money Monster is the week's big cinema release and director Jodie Foster discusses it on Kermode And Mayo's Film Review (14:00, BBC Radio 5 Live). The movie has suffered an iffy critical response so far but nevertheless looks interesting. Unfolding in real-time, it sees TV financial whiz George Clooney and his producer Julia Roberts taken hostage by Jack O'Connell, a heavily armed and now-unhinged investor who lost his shirt when one of Clooney's tips went pear-shaped. As a set-up for a thriller, I've heard a lot worse. If you're staying in, there's Darren Aronofsky's traumatic drug addiction drama Requiem For A Dream (23:15, Film4), starring Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly, or Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho (00:35, Channel 4).

Will Clooney cash out in Money Monster?

Saturday 28th: BBC2 has become the only terrestrial channel that seems to give a hoot about its weekend movie programming and they've been serving up some splendid double bills of late. This week's is no different with the showing of Christopher Nolan's twisty period thriller The Prestige (23:00), which stars Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as rival stage magicians, followed by The Disappearance Of Alice Creed (01:00, BBC2), another twisty thriller, this time of the British variety. Gemma Arterton stars as the titular Alice, kidnapped by Eddie Marsan and Martin Compston, who intend to extort money from her wealthy dad. If neither of those takes your fancy, there's always George A Romero's zombie classic Night Of The Living Dead (00:45, Horror Channel). "They're coming to get you, Barbara..."

The Prestige: ...and that's magic!

Sunday 29th: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac star in classy thriller The Two Faces Of January (00:30, Channel 4). Set in '60s Greece, Isaac is a hustler posing as a tour guide. He targets a pair of wealthy American tourists (Mortensen and Dunst) but soon realises he's in way over his head. Directed by Drive screenwriter Hossein Amini, it's smart, well-acted and hums with sexual tension. The Act Of Killing (22:05, Sky Atlantic), Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary about the systematic slaughter of alleged communists in Indonesia in the 1960s, remains as disturbing as ever. It is also utterly essential viewing.

Sexual tension ahoy in The Two Faces Of January

The Last 5 Films I've seen
1. Fear Eats The Soul (1974): An elderly German woman begins a relationship with a Moroccan immigrant 20 years her junior in Werner Rainer Fassbinder's brutal dissection of prejudice and racism.
2. Viridiana (1961): People are scum, especially the very rich and very poor, in Luis Buñuel's misanthropic masterpiece that sees a novitiate nun abandon her convent life after the suicide of her uncle. A brilliant but deeply fucked-up film.
3. Persona (1966): A nurse discovers her identity is merging with that of the mute actress she cares for in Ingmar Bergman's hugely influential psychological thriller-cum-horror.
4. Ivan's Childhood (1962): Andrei Tarkovsky's debut feature is a haunting and powerful WWII drama about a young boy working as a scout for the Red Army after the Nazis kill his mother and sister. 
5. The Brown Bunny (2003): If you can forgive its notorious – and entirely gratuitous – blow-job scene, Vincent Gallo's road movie is actually a pretty effective character study of a soul in torment. 

Buñuel's Viridiana: A misanthropic masterpiece

UK box-office Top 10
1. Captain America: Civil War R
2. Angry Birds 
3. The Jungle Book R
4. Bad Neighbours 2
5. Florence Foster Jenkins
6. Our Kind Of Traitor
7. Everybody Wants Some!! R
8. Secret Cinema: 28 Days Later
9. Eye In The Sky 
10. Green Room

R = Recommended

Cannes film festival 2016 winners
Palme d’Or: I, Daniel Blake (dir: Ken Loach)
Grand Prix: It’s Only the End of the World (dir: Xavier Dolan)
Jury prize: American Honey (dir: Andrea Arnold)

Best director: Graduation (dir: Cristian Mungiu) and Personal Shopper (dir: Olivier Assayas)
Best screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, The Salesman

Best actor: Shahab Hosseini, The Salesman
Best actress: Jaclyn Jose, Ma Rosa
Caméra d’Or: Divines (dir: Houda Benyamina)

Best short film: Timecode

Honorary Palme d’Or: Jean-Pierre Léaud

Spotlight, Brooklyn and Cannibal Holocaust: Your week in film (Feb 29-Mar 6)

Spotlight: Tom McCarthy's drama was a shock winner at the Oscars 

TV, Radio, DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and cinema picks for the next seven days...

But first a word or two about the Oscars

I enjoyed The Revenant but was glad it didn't win the Best Picture Oscar. Yes, it's a beautiful-looking film with a couple of superb dramatic set-pieces but, ultimately, is really just another half-decent Western revenge tale. Or, to be less kind, what it all boils to is two men with silly accents (Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy) wrestling in the snow. Alejandro Iñárritu's film deserved its award for cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki's third Oscar win in a row) but that's about it. 

Eventual Best Picture champion Spotlight is The Revenant's polar opposite – a low-key film with no directorial flashiness, action set-pieces or melodrama. The film's plot – journalists investigating the cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Boston – is front and centre at all times. Even the excellent ensemble cast in Tom McCarthy's movie (including Supporting Actor nominees Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams) are granted little external life outside of their quest to chase down witnesses and pour over information sources. It's a fascinating film and one happy to take its time in showing the Boston Globe writers methodically and forensically building their jigsaw of evidence. However, despite its many qualities, Spotlight still seems like an odd favourite. Simply put, the film's problem is that it isn't very 'cinematic', reminding me more of a quality TV drama than an Oscar-winning movie. In fact, it might just be the most understated Best Picture winner ever.

Now, if you're thinking all these sour grapes are just my way of saying "Mad Max: Fury Road was robbed", then you'd be right. I'm delighted director George Miller and his team won six technical Oscars though. But that was the least the film deserved...

On with this week's picks...

Monday February 29th: Saoirse Ronan is fantastic in Brooklyn (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD), director John Crowley's beautifully written (by Nick Hornby) and acted adaptation of Colm Tóibín's 1950s-set novel. As Ellis, Ronan is a young immigrant relocating from her quiet Irish village to the hustle and bustle of the titular New York borough. There, she meets and falls for an easygoing Italian plumber but is soon recalled on urgent family business. Back on home soil, Ellis's new life, priorities and future are all suddenly thrown up into the air, especially when a potential new suitor makes himself known. She faces a huge choice – which way will she leap? The plot is simplicity itself but the themes and emotions are big. Elsewhere, Takashi Miike's notorious J-horror Audition (BR and Dual Format Steelbook) gets the swanky reissue treatment.

Brooklyn is beautifully written and acted (trailer)

Tuesday March 1st: Despite being nearly 40 years old, Cannibal Holocaust (Mubi) still bites great big bloody lumps out of recent cannibal-flavoured offerings such as Bone Tomahawk and The Green Inferno. It might be sleazy, nasty, gratuitous, and thoroughly reprehensible (the killing of several animals in the film is real), but Ruggero Deodato's infamous 1980 film is cleverer and, in many ways, far less reactionary than its clumsy imitators. Of course, it also pretty much invented the 'found footage' storytelling technique now widely seen in dodgy horror flicks the world over. But please don't hold that against it. Film 2016 (23:45, BBC1) ends its latest seven-episode run tonight with Claudia Winkleman, Danny Leigh and guest Tim Robey casting their critical gaze over the week's new releases. The show – which must cost peanuts to produce – is treated pretty shabbily by the Beeb; moved around the schedules willy-nilly and only broadcast for a few weeks at a time either side of the new year. More positively, Peter Sellars is Inspector Clouseau in the very funny The Return of the Pink Panther (Netflix). Swine bird!

Cannibal Holocaust: Sleazy, nasty, gratuitous (trailer)

Wednesday March 2nd: Dallas Buyers Club (Amazon Prime) is one of those rare 'Oscar bait' movies that is actually pretty good. Set in the 1980s and based on a true story, Matthew McConaughey plays AIDS patient Ron Woodroof who, frustrated at the lack of effective medication available to him and fellow sufferers in the US, takes matters into his own hands. A powerful drama. David Cronenberg's bravura body horror remake The Fly (22:00, Syfy), released in 1986, has frequently been described as an AIDS allegory and it's easy to see why. Scientist Jeff Goldblum conducts an experiment into matter transportation that goes horribly wrong, commencing a process that slowly but surely ravages both his mind and body. Inside Llewyn Davis (21:00, Film4) stars Oscar Isaac as the struggling musician of the title in one of my favourite Coen Brothers films. Abject failure is rarely this entertaining. 

Dallas Buyers Club is superior Oscar bait (trailer)

Thursday March 3rd: Presenter Antonia Quirke talks 1950s communism with Joel and Ethan Coen on The Film Programme (BBC Radio 4, 16:00). The brothers' latest comedy – Hail, Caesar! – is the highlight of this week's cinema releases and is out tomorrow. Olympus Has Fallen (21:00, Channel 5) sees secret service agent Gerard Butler battling North Korean terrorists who have taken over the White House. A sequel – London Has Fallen – is also in cinemas from tomorrow. Your best bet movie-wise today, though, is Michael Mann's classy adaptation of The Last Of The Mohicans (21:00, Spike), starring Daniel Day Lewis as Hawkeye (not that one). 

The Coens are back with Hail, Caesar! (trailer)

Friday March 4th: Apart from the aforementioned Hail, Caesar! and London Has Fallen, this week's cinema releases include a couple of horrors, one intriguing (Goodnight Mommy), one rather less so (The Other Side Of The Door), an interesting-looking documentary (Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Cate Blanchett/Robert Redford drama Truth that, like Spotlight, puts journalists at the centre of proceedings. James Vanderbilt's film tells the true story of 'Rathergate' during the lead up to the 2004 US presidential election. Veteran CBS newsreader Dan Rather (Redford) and the channel's head of news Mary Mapes (Blanchett) ran a story exposing how then-president George W Bush had used his father's connections to avoid being drafted in the Vietnam war. The tsunami of controversy that followed the broadcast saw them both lose their jobs. I shall look out for it when it appears on DVD in a few months time because its chances of reaching my local Odeon are zero.

The Truth is out there for Cate Blanchett (trailer)

Saturday March 5th: Lots of movies on terrestrial TV tonight but nothing you'd take home to meet your mum. Seven Psychopaths (23:40, Channel 4) is another black comedy from Martin McDonagh, the writer/director who gave us the splendidly profane In Bruges. Despite a fine cast, including Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell, it isn't a patch on the earlier film. Even less fun is The Bourne Legacy (21:00, Channel 4), which sees Jeremy Renner supplant Matt Damon as the secret agent series' focus with little success. His character isn't even named Bourne, for god's sake. Never Say Never Again (23:20, ITV) is the remake of Thunderball which marked Sean Connery's return as James Bond after 12 years away. Suffice to say, the 1965 version – which also starred Connery – is substantially better. Al Pacino and Colin Farrell star in CIA thriller The Recruit (23:50, BBC1), a film so unmemorable I'd completely forgotten it even existed until now.

Sean Connery returns as James Bond (trailer)

Sunday March 6th: American Hustle (21:00, Channel 4) isn't David O'Russell's best film (I still reckon 1999's Three Kings holds that title) but it is enormous fun. The '70s crime caper sees con-man Christian Bale and partner Amy Adams forced to work for the FBI by loose-cannon agent Bradley Cooper. O'Russell merges drama and comedy to good effect and revels in the period setting. But Jennifer Lawrence steals the show. Obviously. Set in 1960, The German Doctor (21:00, BBC4) tells the true story of an Argentine family's encounter with fugitive Nazi Dr Joseph Mengele, the Auschwitz 'Angel of Death'. Without realising his true identity they entrust the care of their sick daughter, Lilith, to the man. It's every bit as chilling and discomfiting as you'd expect. 

Jennifer Lawrence lights up American Hustle (trailer)

The last five films I've seen, from best to worst...
1. Taxi Tehran: Jafar Panahi is banned from making movies by the Iranian authorities but finds increasingly clever ways around that limitation. This time he drives a cab around Tehran and films the passengers he encounters. Some of it is clearly staged, but that doesn't detract from what is a fascinating, funny and eye-opening experience.
2. Chronic: Tim Roth's best performance in years lights up this odd and disturbing tale of a palliative care nurse who gets too close to his patients.
3. Trumbo: Solid biopic of 1950s Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Roman Holiday, Spartacus), who was blacklisted and jailed for being a communist. Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston is on fine form.
4. Nina Forever: Bizarre British horror about a man whose girlfriend returns from the dead every time he has sex with his new lover. Underneath the blood and craziness, there's a rather clever meditation on grief.
5.Triple 9: Overcooked heist thriller which boasts a great cast (Kate Winslet, Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor) but suffers from an overabundance of plot twists. 

UK box office top 10
1. Deadpool R
2. Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip
3. How To Be Single
4. Goosebumps R
5. Dad's Army
6. Triple 9
7. Zoolander 2
8. The Revenant R
9. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
10. Spotlight R

R = Recommended